1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to relaying communications between parties.
2. Description of Related Art
Current telecommunication relay services enable those subscribers who communicate using text telephones (TTs) to converse with parties audially and vice versa. When a subscriber, via a text terminal, calls another party through a telecommunication relay service, a human operator of the telecommunication relay service translates the text into voice for the called party and voice to text from the called party to the subscriber. However, if either the called party does not answer or when a subscriber is called by another party and the subscriber does not answer, the calls must be repeated at a different time in order for the subscriber and the other party to communicate. Thus, new technology is needed to provide communication even when one of the parties does not answer.
The invention provides a telecommunication relay device that relays communication from a first party to at least one second party. The first party and the second party may use terminals of different types such as telephone stations, text telephones, two-way pagers, personal digital assistants with communication capabilities, data network terminals, etc. The telecommunication relay device converts text received from text terminals into voice for voice terminals and converts voice or text into a form suitable for a data network terminal coupled to a private chat room and vice versa. Thus, the telecommunication relay device permits parties using different types of terminals to communicate with each other.
The telecommunication relay device also permits the first party to leave/receive messages for/from other parties where the message may take a form that cannot be handled by the terminal used by the first party. For example, the first party may send an e-mail message using a telephone station or receive an e-mail using a telephone station. In addition, when the first party requests the telephone communication relay device to contact a second party that is logged onto the data network, the telecommunication relay device opens a private chat room and converts the information received from the first party via a telephone station into private chat room text and converts text entered by the second party in the private chat room using a data network terminal into voice and outputs the voice to the first party. Thus, the telecommunication relay device provides messaging services where the messages cannot be sent directly by the terminal of the first party.
The telecommunication relay device may also provide a conferencing capability where the conferees may use different type terminals. For example, the first party may use a telephone station while the second party may use a text telephone and a third party may use a data network terminal. The telecommunication relay device converts the information received from the conferees and converts the information into a form that is compatible to all the conferees terminals. Thus, a conference may be conducted among conferees having different type terminals.